Installing and Upgrading DET

The DET can be run by either

  1. Downloading the DET executable file (recommended for general users)

  2. Installing the package through python (for the more tech-savvy)

Download the DET executable

The latest DET executable file can be downloaded from the github releases page by looking under the “Assets” section of the latest release. Note that only Linux-based executable files are currently supported (Windows coming soon).

Linux binary

After having downloaded the DET binary file you have to make sure the file has the necessary executable permission. You can check this by running

test -x <path-to-file> builds.txt && echo true || echo false 

If the file is not executable the terminal will show “false”, in which case you can simply give the file the necessary executable permission by running

chmod +x <path-to-file>

Now you can simply run the DET as you would any other binary file

./commcare_export <options>

Installing DET through package

When you want to use the DET by installing the package, these are the basic steps to follow:

  1. Download and install Python

  2. Install a Python package manager (we recommend pip)

  3. Install the ComCare Data Export tool

  4. Create an Excel Query File

  5. Write a command-line query to run the export

  6. (Optionally) Configure export to be re-run automatically

  7. Use data

Install DET on Windows

The Data Export tool is installed by using the pip install commcare-export command.

Install Python

Visit the Python for Windows page and download the latest version of Python.

Install pip

Installation is straightforward if your local machine has a recent version of Python installed because the package installer, pip, will already be installed. 

You can check whether pip is installed by running the following in the command-line interpreter:

Install commcare-export

Upgrade commcare export

Install DET on MacOS

The Data Export tool is installed by using the pip install commcare-export command.

Install Python

For MacOS make sure that your Python installation is upgraded to the latest version. The best way to install software on a Mac is via Homebrew. You need to open a terminal and run two scripts to install Homebrew and the latest version of Python. 

Open a terminal and run the following two commands. 

  1. The first script installs Homebrew. 

  2. The second script installs Python and any prerequisites.  


For Homebrew, use the following:

Install commcare-export

Upgrade commcare-export

 

 NOTE: If you have any problems setting up Python on MacOS, use this reference: http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/starting/install/osx/

Install DET on Linux

The Data Export tool is installed by using the pip install commcare-export command.

Install Python

If you are on a Linux-based operating system, you probably have an automatic package manager available. You probably already have Python installed, but if not, then you will need to invoke the package manager for your operating system. Here are some possible commands to run in the command-line interpreter:

or

or

Install pip


Install commcare-export


Upgrade commcare-export

 

NOTE: If you get an error "ValueError: Invalid column index 0" you should run this command to downgrade one of the python libraries:

$ pip install -U openpyxl==1.8.6